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Walk-Off Is A Perfect Ending to Exciting Night For Red Sox

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Last night’s Red Sox walk-off win was a brilliant one. It’s fair to say, the most exciting Boston game of the 2017 season, and all the more so as it came against a very tough, very motivated opponent.

Where in the standings might the 2017 Red Sox be without Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel? So on a night when neither had their best stuff, the offense came through for an important win to put Boston back atop the American League East.

All the usual suspects have the game recaps. What RSNStats offers you is some statistical and historical context around the contest.

  • Chris Sale gave up five Indians runs over the first two innings on Monday. That snapped a 21.2-inning scoreless streak. It was just the second of 22 starts this season in which Sale allowed a first-inning run.
  • And yet, even with this uncharacteristically bad outing, Sale manages to draw comparisons to the great ones. Elias Sports Bureau says the only other Red Sox starter coming off three or more straight scoreless starts to give up at least five runs before the start of the third inning is Cy Young, on July 6, 1903, against the St. Louis Browns. Of course, Young went on to pitch the complete-game, earning an 8–6 win in that one.
  • Satisfyingly, the Red Sox have plated 6+ runs in back-to-back games. The offense is back, or is it? We’ve certainly seen this before, the frustrating, on-again/off-again offensive performances. Monday’s was the first where the Sox scored four or more runs in multiple innings of a game since last September 2nd at Oakland.
  • Especially given the news of Dustin Pedroia‘s trip to the DL, how good does the signing of Eduardo Núñez look right now? Playing at second base on Monday, Núñez went 3-for-5 for his fifth three-hit performance in his last nine games. His two-out double tied the game in the second inning and he’s now 31-for-72 (.431) with runners in scoring position this season.
  • A resurgent Mookie Betts drove in his club-best 67th RBI on Monday. He’s now 36-for-87 (.414) with runners in scoring position in 2017. Betts leads the AL since the start of last year at 86-for-228 (.377) with RISP.
  • It was great to see Mitch Moreland showing offensive signs of life again on Monday, too. His second inning, three-run home run sparked an offensive rally that erased the early five-run deficit. Moreland, who also doubled in the sixth inning, is now 4-for-11 (.364) over his last three games after going 4-for-46 (.087) with no extra-base hits in the 15 games before that.
  • Moreland’s ninth inning strikeout should have ended the game but, fortunately, the ball squirted away from Indian catcher Yan Gomes and Moreland reached, allowing the hero, Christian Vázquez, to come to the plate.
  • It’s not unreasonable to expect the league to figure out Rafael Devers at some point and cool him down. Until then, though, he’s on a torrid pace going 2-for-4 with a walk on Monday. Devers reached base safely in seven straight plate appearances (a streak that ended with a foul out in the fifth inning). Devers has now reached safely in all seven career games. In the last 50 years, only six other Red Sox have started their careers with a seven-game on-base streak: Sam Horn, Mo Vaughn, Shea Hillenbrand, Kevin Youkilis, and Daniel Nava.
  • Boston is now 39-for-105 (.371) with runners in scoring position for their last 13 games.

Pitching Implosion

It wasn’t just Sale who had a tough night. Indians starter Carlos Carrasco lasted just 1.2 IP after coughing back up his team’s five-run lead in the second inning.

A succession of pitchers, including old-friend Andrew Miller, struggled to hold the game in check. In all, 12 pitchers would appear in Monday’s game (seven for the Tribe and five for the Sox).

Newly acquired Red Sox set up man Addison Reed made no new friends, allowing a solo shot by Carlos Santana to make it a one-run game in the eighth. Kimbrel promptly allowed a game-tying home run by Francisco Lindor in the top of the ninth inning and then the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.

In the bottom of the ninth, Cleveland closer Cody Allen followed suit with a meltdown of his own that allowed the Sox to win the game. Kimbrel would walk away with both a blown save and the win.

Vázquez’ remarkable night

Fans know that Christian Vázquez would not normally have started behind the plate for Sale. He was there, however, because mainstay battery-mate Sandy León tweaked his knee in his game-winning slide to home on Saturday.

Vázquez has been on a tear lately, entering Monday’s action 8-for-16 (.500) with three extra-base hits during a four-game hitting streak. Still, Red Sox Nation couldn’t help but wonder if Sale’s early innings missteps could be attributed in some way to Vázquez. Sale, of course, batted that way in post-game comments. “Didn’t matter who was back there tonight, honestly. I had a bad night.”

With the bat,Vázquez seemed unfazed by the rough start, chipping in for three of the club’s 15 hits. It’s his fourth straight multi-hit game. But it was the last hit that mattered most, a towering, majestic 408-foot, two-out home run to center field that gave the Red Sox a 12-10 victory.

Vázquez had just one other HR this season and had never had a walk-off round-tripper.

It was just the second two-out, walk-off home run by a No. 9 hitter in baseball this season (also Miami’s JT Riddle) and the first for the Red Sox since Del Wilber, who connected against Don Larsen on May 20, 1953.

Vázquez and León have now both hit walk-off home runs this season. According to ESPN, the only other season in which two different Red Sox catchers hit game-ending homers was 1995 (Mike Macfarlane and Bill Haselman).

At home this season Váz` is now 36-for-94 (.383), the best home AVG in the AL (minimum 50 at-bats).

Props to Austin Jackson

RSNStats is about the Red Sox, of course, but it would be criminal to overlook what Indians outfielder Austin Jackson did last night.

Jackson’s leaping catch over the Boston bullpen wall robbed Hanley Ramírez of a fifth-inning home run. It was one of finest outfield plays your correspondent has ever witnessed. Just outstanding.


Fister Excellent in Red Sox Win

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Monday’s Red Sox win over the tough Cleveland Indians was just the kind of game that can help restore some confidence for fans.

Doug Fister gave the Sox a solid, speedy 7.2 IP (108 pitches), allowing five hits but no runs until a two-run, no-doubt eighth inning blast by Indians rookie Bradley Zimmer. It was the performance Sox baseball president Dave Dombrowksi expected when he claimed Fister off waivers on June 23 from the Angels.

Red Sox Nation had justifiable concerns about Fister after he started his Boston career going 0-5 with a 7.46 ERA. For his part, Fister said the issues were mechanical and that he was working on them. On Monday, we got to see the fruit of those labors and fans were able to breath a sigh of relief.

“Overall, it wasn’t a bad night,” Fister said in a post-game self-evaluation. “A lot of progress made…I’m always trying to get better.”

Brandon Workman finished up the game for Boston with 1.1 innings of scoreless relief, saving the bullpen from any further taxing on the night before Chris Sale takes the mound on Tuesday.

Devers and Núñez Light A Spark

The Sox offense came alive on Monday sparked by a 4-for-4 night for Boston rookie Rafael Devers, three hits from newcomer Eduardo Núñez, and two hits apiece for Mookie Betts and Christian Vázquez. For Betts, it was his club-leading 8th multi-RBI game, driving in three on Monday, including two coming with two outs.

In all, it was Boston’s 21st game of the season with 13+ hits, the most of any American League club but the Astros (23).

Devers is the first Boston player in almost 30 years with a four-hit game within his first six career MLB games. He joins Jody Reed (1987), Ted Cox (1977), Fred Lynn (1974), Frank Malzone (1955), Hall of Famer Ted Williams (1939), and Tex Vache (1925) as the only Red Sox players to accomplish the feat.

The Sox, known for so many years to be a doubles machine, on Monday collected four two-baggers in a game for the first time since June 30. The club started the night with just 185 doubles, a notch ahead of the MLB average (185).

With Monday’s win, John Farrell is now three from becoming the eighth manager in Sox history to lead the team to 400 victories.


Rafael Devers Debuts Tuesday

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The Red Sox ended the speculation this weekend, saying that Rafael Devers will make his big-league debut with the club when they take on the Mariners Tuesday.

Devers will join Xander Bogaerts  as the only Sox position players since 1980 to make their major league debuts before turning 21.

Sox President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski, presumably wheeling and dealing with the trade deadline just days away, told reporters after Sunday’s game that “we think that [Devers] gives us as good a chance as anyone we’ve had a chance to acquire, for third base.”

Dombrowski notes that other potential trades had high price tags that don’t necessarily promise much more production than what Devers can provide. “The requests for some of the guys that would be minimally better for us have been very large,” Dombrowski said.

Getting to Know Rafael Devers

Devers, the Red Sox 2016 Minor League Defensive Player of the Year, hails from Sanchez, Dominican Republic and lives in Invivienda, DR during the off-season. He won’t turn 21 until October 24. He’s slashed .311 AVG/.377 OBP/.578 SLG in 86 minor league games this season, all but nine of them at Double-A Portland. In nine games at Triple-A Pawtucket Devers was 14-for-35 (.400) with two home runs.

In comparison to one-time Sox top-prospect Yoan Moncada, Double-A manager Carlos Febles told the Boston Globe‘s Alex Speier, Devers has advanced skills. “Moncada was basically one-dimensional,” Febles says. “He had the ability to hit the ball the other way, but had a tough time recognizing pitches, especially the changeup. He couldn’t recognize the changeup. Devers is the other way around.”

The Sox signed Devers as an international free agent on August 9, 2013. He made his professional debut the next year batting 84-for-261 (.322) with 17 doubles, five triples, seven home runs, 57 RBI, 35 walks, and a .404 OBP in 70 games between the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League Red Sox and Gulf Coast League Red Sox.

Devers spent the 2015 season with Single-A Greenville, where he was named a South Atlantic League mid-season All-Star. Devers finished the season with second-most doubles (38) and total bases (208), and third-most extra-base hits (50) in the league. He spent the entirety of last season at High-A Salem, leading the club in games (128), runs scored (64), and home runs (11), and ranking third in the Carolina League for at-bats (503), fourth for hits (142), and fifth for total bases (223). His monthly batting average topped .300 in June (.313), July (.357), and August (.328).

The 6-foot, 234-pound lefty infielder entered the 2017 season ranked by Baseball America as the club’s No. 2 prospect, as well as having the best infield arm in the organization. He was ranked the No. 18 prospect in all of baseball.

This past spring Devers was 3-for-22 (.136) with an RBI, two walks and three strikeouts in the Grapefruit League. He was included along with Brian Johnson and Henry Owens in the club’s first round of cuts in mid-March.

Behind the Scenes in the Price, Eckersley Feud

Red Sox Nation was abuzz Monday morning with the Boston Globe‘s damning, behind-the-scenes look at last month’s blow-up between David Price and Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, who was traveling with the team as part of the NESN broadcast crew.

According to Dan Shaughnessy’s sources, Price laid in wait during boarding of the team plane, about midway down the aisle, to verbally confront Eckersley when he entered the cabin about what Price felt were derogatory on-air comments about Eduardo Rodriguez. The article paints a thin-skinned, nasty portrait of Price but also, I think, of Dombrowksi and Manager John Farrell, both of whom were on the same flight.

Red Sox offense has undoubtedly suffered since David Ortiz‘ retirement, but you can’t help wondering if club house leadership left with Ortiz, too.

Unscientific though it may be, sentiment around Red Sox Nation seemed to be running against Price and for Eck. For his part, though, outspoken former Sox ace Curt Schilling tweeted doubts, saying of Shaughnessy, “no one ANYWHERE on this team would ‘confide’ in this clown.”